Published 10:00 pm, Saturday, December 21, 2013
When it's announced on the airwaves of NPR that you are "the next big jazz guitarist," as Nir Felder was introduced back in 2010, expectations are bound to be high. And if you've spent your time plying your trade around Manhattan, Brooklyn and environs, as well as touring the world, working along with artists like Greg Osby, Meshell N'degeocello, Chuck Mangione, Jack DeJohnette, John Scofield, and Esperanza Spalding, expectations are certain to soar over the top. So with next month's release of the guitarist's debut album, Golden Age, when jazz fans will get a chance to sample Felder's work as the leader of his own ensemble, they will be looking for great things.
Joined by pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Matt Penman, and Nate Smith on drums, Felder travels his way through 10 original compositions loosely connected to the examination of the idea of a golden age. Have we lived through a golden age? Are we living in one now? Has that gold turned to dross? Are we coming to a new golden age as the fiscal crisis of recent years seems to have passed? "So," he says, "there is a lack of clarity about whether things are going great or they're really bad, and the music reflects that."
Now while there will no doubt be those who fail to see any one-to-one connection between the idea and the music in the album as a whole, there is no question it appears most clearly in at least three of the pieces. These are compositions that combine spoken-word samples from speeches by a variety of political, cultural and social leaders-including figures as diverse as Barbara Jordan and Elie Wiesel, Mario Cuomo and Lou Gehrig, Malcolm X and Richard Nixon. Sometimes you can recognize the voice, sometimes not, but always you are impressed with the seriousness of the project.
Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/blogcritics/article/Music-Review-Nir-Felder-Golden-Age-5086089.php
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